Method of producing tubular metallic articles



Aug. 18, 1925. 1,550,153

W. L. R. EMMET ET AL METHOD OF PRODUCING TUBULAR METALLIC ARTICLES FiledMarch 28, 1925 Patented Aug. 18, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

WILLIAM L. R. EMMET. OF SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK, AND SAMUEL T. THORPE, OF

BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT; SAID THQRPE ASSIGNOR TO THE HORTON MANUFACTUR- INGCOMPANY, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

METHOD OF PRODUCING TUBULAR METALLIC ARTICLES.

Application filed March 28, 1925. Serial No. 19,089.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, WILLIAM L. R. EMMET andSAMUEL T. Tnonrn, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively,at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State of New York, and atBristol, county of Hartford, State of Connecticut, have invented acertain new and Improved Method of Producing Tubular Metallic, Articles;and we do hereby declare the following to be a. full, clear, and exactdescription of the Same, reference. being. had to theaccompanyingdrawings forming part of this specification.

Our invention relates to-an improved method of producing tubularmetallic shafts or similar articles, and particularly to the method ofproducing tubular metallicshafts which are designed to withstand severeand repeated bending and twisting strains and. which, when distorted,will return to their. original form when-the strain to which they aresubjected is removed. Our invention rc-. lates particularly to animproved method of producing tubular metallic shafts for use as theshafts of golf clubs and for similar purposes.

This application is a continuation, as to all matter common to the twoapplications, of our pending application Serial No. 518,-. 483, forseamed. metal articles, filed November 28, 1921, which has matured intoUnited I States Letters Patent No. 1,543,497, granted June 23, 1925.

I. The shaft of a golf club-is subjected to repeated. bending andtwisting strainswhich: are often severe in nature. The golf club'- shaftto be successful must be so made that it will withstand suchstrains,withou;t failing at; any point or losing'i-ts resilient 'and:flexible characteristics. In manufacturing tubular metallic shafts fromsheet .metal, great difficulty has been experienced in forming the ,seamby which the edges of the metal blank are united to form a tubular"shaft. Such aseam must be so formed that it will not destroy theresilience or flexibil i-ty of the finished'shaft and it must belso.-formed as to be substantially as resilient and flexible as the body ofthe tube The chief object-of our present invention is to provide amethod of forming a seamed tubular metallic shaft by which the finishedproduct has. the desired uniform resilience and flexibility and isstrong enough to withstand the repeated flexing to which such an articleis 55 subjected in use. Y

A further. object of our present invention is to provide a method ofmanufacturing seamed metallic tubular shafts or rods which enables thevmanufacture of such articles on 0 a commercial scale at a comparativelylow cost while producing an article which has the necessary strength to,withstand repeated. strains while possessing the resilience andflexibility which such an article needs .When 65 it is to -be .used asthe shaft ofa golf club, for instance.

In one instance we accomplish the objects of our invention by thedevices and means.

disclosed in the following specification. Our-. 7

invention is clearly defined and pointed out in the appended claims.

The method constitutingthepreferred embodiment of our invention is setforth in the following specification and illustrated by 75 reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which,-

F igurel is a perspective view of the blank from which a tapered steeltube is. made formed into shape preparatory to joining the -30 Fig. 5 isa perspective view of a golf club, 00

the shaft of which has been formed of 'a tube similar to that shown inFig.4.

A sheet metal blank formed up, preferably of steel, is trimmed to thedesired shape, depending upon the taper of the tube which is 95 to beformed from it. If the tube to be formed is to be cylindrical, ofcourse, this blankx-will be rectangular. Thisblank is. preferably formedof steel of the desired gage and chemical analysis, depending upon methe weight of the shaft which is to be formed and the degree offlexibility or resilience which such shaft must have. The blank is thenformed roughly into the shape of the tubular shaft which is to bemadepthus'los bringing the longitudinal edges of the blank,- W

' strains to which such a shaft issubjected and which would not detractfrom the resilience or flexibility of the finished tube. In accordancewith our invention, we propose to form this seam by means of a steelconnecting strip inserted between the adjacent edges of the body of thetube and lapping and secured to adjacent portions of the body of thetube by a suitable binder of the character hereinafter described. Thisconnectin stri is preferably made of steel and we nd it highly desirableto use steel for this strip of substantially the same carbon content asthe steel of the blank forming the body of the tube. This has theadvantage that the connecting strip and the body of the tube are ofsteel having substantially the same characteristics in so far asresilience and flexibility are concerned. We find it desirable to formthis steel strip into the shape shown in Fig. 2. The strip is folded at12 over upon the body portion 11 of the strip, then bent so as toprovide the portion 13 extending at right angles to the body of thestrip and thence bent back again so as to form the flange 14 which liesparallel to the body of the strip but is spaced therefrom slightly. Thestrip thus formed is inserted between the adjacent edges of the tubeformed by the body of the blank. In doing this, the operator takes asuitable tube and draws the strip into position. When inserted, thebody. portion 11 of the strip lies within the tube. The portion 13 ofthe strip is disposed between the adjacent edges of the body of thetube. The

flange 14 overlies the outer side of the body of the tube while theportions 12 and-11 of the strip engage the inner surface of the body ofthe tube adjacent the meeting edges "thereof.

When the connecting strip has been inserted between the edges of thetube as described, it serves to support the adj aoent portions of theblank in proper relation to each other and also serves to form a part ofthe seam which connects the edges of the blank to form the finishedtube. The next step in the manufacture of this tubular metallic shaft isto wrap the tube with an asbestos tap: which is wound spirally." aroundthe tu so as to' hold the edges of the'blank in proper contact with theconnecting strip. This tape may well be wet before being wound upon thetube, with the result that,

when drv it grips the tube very tightly. The

next step in the manufacture of this tubular metallic shaft is toiointhe connecting strip and the edges of the blank forming the body ofthe tube by means of a suitable metallic binder. It is important toselect a binder and a method of joining these arts which does notinvolve a high degree 0 heat because the steel used in forming the bodyof the tube and the connectin strip has a considerable percentage of caron in order that it may have the desired resilience and flexibilityand,'if any of the usual methods of welding are employed, the heatnecessarily incident thereto is so great as to decarbonize the portionsof the tube adjacent the seam and hence destroy or decrease theirresilience and flexi- 'bility, thus forming a weak zone in the meofcopper wiire+thejnumbeii of strands toibe used depending upon 'theamountv ofcopper.

which it is desired to useiwaiorm the binder -are inserted within thetubelsoftha-t thjey lie adjacent the conne'ctin strip, and such strandsare temporarily he din that relation, if desired, by any suitable means.The tube, with the strands of copper wire, is then inserted in a furnacein an atmosphere of hydrogen, the furnace being maintained at or aboutthe melting point of the copper. The fused copper runs'into theinterstices between the connecting strip and the adjacent portions ofthe body of the tube and forms a very secure union between these parts.After the tube has been allowed to remain in the furnace for the properlength of time to secure this union, it is withdrawn through anatmosphere of hydrogen and allowed to cool in the absence 'of air. Forinstance, the tube may be passed from the atmosphere of hydrogendirectly into a suitable cooling bath. After the seam has been formed asabove described and the tubes are cooled, the asbestos tape is removedtherefrom and the finished tubular shaft is subjected to any desiredfinishing operation. Where it is desired to provide a smooth exteriorfor the finished product, the flange 14 on the exterior of the tube maybe removed in any suitable way as, for instance, by grinding it off. Theresult of this method is that it provides for the manufacture, at acomparatively low cost, of tubular metallic shafts or rods which have ahigh degree of flexibility or resilience so that they maybe flexed orbent laterally repeatedly, without failing under these refrom theresilience or flexibility of the finished product, but it provides avery strong connecting seam joining the edges of the blank, which willstand upunder the severe strains to which it is subjected.

As the binding material, we prefer to use copper in a highly purifiedstate, preferably copper which is free from occluded .gases and fromwhich all oxide has been instance, certain alloys of copper. One suchalloy consists of ninety-three parts copper and seven parts aluminum;another is composed of ninety-three parts copper and ten parts nickel.Silver, also, under certain conditions, may be used as the bindingmaterial. The composition of the connecting strip should be chosen sothat, in the finished tube, it has an elasticity at least as great asthat: of the body portion 10. Both body portion and strip may be formedof any one of various alloys of steel. In many cases, we find itdesirable to use a non-rust ing metal, such as alloys of steel andchromium.

While we have disclosed the connecting strip as formed of sheet metalbent into the form shown, the strip might be formed as a solid barrolled or drawn into the required shape. When the material of which thestrip is composed is a high carbon steel, it is in general easier toform the strip of sheet metal by bending it to the form described fromthe fiat.

We are aware that the particular method described in this specificationmay be varied considerably in its details without departing from thespirit of our invention and, there fore, we claim our invention as setforth in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of making a thin walled steel tubular article of smalldiameter which consists in forming a thin sheet steel blank in tubularform with edges in abutting relation; placing a thin steel strip betweensaid edges andoverlapping in close contact inner and outer surfaces ofthe tube, whereby the edges and strip mutually support each other inproper relation for brazing; placing a cuprous brazing materiallongitudinally along the strip; and subjecting the assembled blank stripand brazing material to heat in an atmosphere of hydrogen suflicient tomelt and cause the brazing material to fill the interstices between andunite the proximate surfaces of the strip and blank.

2. A method of making a thin walled steel tubular article of smalldiameter, which consists in forming a. thin sheet steel blank in tubularform with edges in abutting relation, placing a thin steel sl-ripbetween said edges and overlapping in close contact inner and outersurfaces of the tube whereby the edges and strip mutually support eachother in proper relation for brazing; placing a cuprous brazing materiallongitudinally along the strip; and subjecting the assembled blank stripand brazing material to heat in an atmosphere of hydro-gen suflicient tomelt and cause the brazing material to fill the interstices between andunite the proximate surfaces of the strip and blank; and finallyremoving the portion of the strip lying on the outer side of the tube.

3. The method of securing together the edges of a seamed steel tube bymeans of a T-shaped steel strip and a cuprous binder which consists ininserting the body portion of the strip between adjacent edges of thetube with the arms of the strip lying against the inner surface of thetube, holding the strip and tube together throu hout their length,applying the material orming the binder and subjecting the whole to atemperature suflicient to melt the binder in an atmosphere of hydrogen.

4. A method of making a seamed article which consists in formin a steelblank having abutting edges, placing between said edges and in contactwith portions of the surface of said blank a steel strip, joining saidstrip to said edges and surface by melting copper in contact with thesame in an atmosphere of hydrogen and tempering the article so formed.

5. The method of forming tubular metallic articles, consisting offorming a sheet metal blank into the shape required fo the body of thetube, inserting a metal connecting strip between the adjacent edges ofsaid body and in contact with the portions thereof adjacent said body,and joining said strip to said body portion by fusing a suitable bindingmaterial and causing it to flow into the interstices between said stripand the body of said tube, said binding material being of differentmaterial than the strip and such as to fuse at a temperature below thatat which decarbonization of steel takes place.

6. The method of forming a tubular metallic shaft, comprising forming asheet metal blank into the shape required for the body of the tube,disposing a metal connecting strip having a higher melting point thancopper in engagement with portions of the body of the tube adjacent thelongitudinal edges thereof, and uniting said strip and said portions tothe body by fusing copper and allowing the fused copper to cent theportions of said blank adjoining flow into the interstices between saidstrip the longitudinal edges thereof and bridging and said body. the gapbetween said edges, and uniting 7. The method of forming a tubularmesaid connecting strip to the body of the tube 6 tallic shaft,consisting in forming a sheet by fusing copper and permitting the fusedsteel blank into the shape required for the copper to flow into 'theinterstices between body of the tube, thus bringing the longisaid stripand the adjacent portions of said tudinal edges of said blank intojuxtaposi blank. tion, disposing a steel strip of substantially WILLIAML. R. EMMET. 10 the same carbon content as said blank adja- SAMUEL T.THORPE.

